The ability to gain timely access to important information on a computer, and, more particularly, on a computer network, is a necessity in today's competitive market. As the number of digital documents continues to grow, such access will only gain in importance.
Document management systems automate document management on computer networks and facilitate location and sharing of documents in workgroups without requiring knowledge of, for example, the DOS filename or physical location of a document. A document management system may also provide system administration functions by establishing criteria that are used to, for example, determine storage location and/or determine document archival actions. Furthermore, security criteria can be assigned to limit unauthorized access to documents.
Document management systems typically store critical information required to access a document in a document “profile.” The profile may include document attributes or information about the document such as the document type, the author, the creation date, the access rights, etc. The profile information is stored in a database and is used to retrieve the document via a search or query without the user having to remember, for example, the DOS filename and storage location (for example, server/volume:directory/filename). Profiling thus provides quick access to documents.
In addition to locating documents from the information stored in the document profile, a number of document management systems also index document text allowing users to perform full-text searches to find documents. Such full-text searches can require somewhat lengthy searches in large databases.
Although a number of computer implemented document management programs or systems are currently available, it remains desirable to develop improved document management systems and methods.